Fruition of a Nightmare
by Synathidy
Summary: Sean is a Pokémon trainer lost deep in depression, indifferent to his fate. This depression soon brings him to a place where he has an encounter much more real and terrifying than his dark thoughts.


_Fruition of a Nightmare_

_by Synathidy_

Sean kept his dark, gray-blue eyes on the ground as he shuffled moodily up the rocky mountain path, hands in his pockets and a backpack slung casually over one shoulder. The Pokémon trainer was a boy of about 19, quite tall, unusually thin, and with voluminous brown hair that would have hung down to the middle of his torso if it hadn't been so curly. He was dressed simply, wearing only a plain white T-shirt and loose-fitting jeans. It was an overcast day, and the wind blew in erratic gusts that made his hair fly around wildly. This annoyed him.

"Stupid aide... who needs a Flash HM anyway..." Sean muttered to himself. He had met an aide of Professor Oak earlier that day who was offering free Flash HMs to trainers, IF they had acquired at least ten different species of Pokémon. However, his Pokédex only registered six, three of which were evolutions of the same Pokémon, his Beedrill, Kiichigo. Two others were Baphomet the Zubat and Ganymede the Horsea, and yet another was the Bulbasaur he had been given at the start of his journey. While he loved his Bulbasaur, he had decided early on to keep it in storage so that he could have room on his team for other Pokémon that he came across. It wasn't fair to him that starter Pokémon so often received guaranteed spots on the rosters of so many trainers. Why shouldn't other Pokémon get a chance? He just had a feeling that he would eventually meet six Pokémon on his OWN terms that would become very special to him.

Sean wasn't a typical trainer. He wasn't competitive and didn't care about "catching 'em all," as the popular slogan went. He didn't want anything beyond finding the six Pokémon that would become his close traveling companions and friends. What was the point of collecting more when they would just have to be neglected in a storage box?

He didn't even particularly like battling, and thus avoided challenges from other trainers as much as possible. The only times he would willingly battle were either when he was seeking out wild Pokémon for training purposes, or when he needed to earn a gym badge. Come to think of it, there weren't many good reasons why he had become a trainer in the first place. He DID look forward to building close relationships with the Pokémon that would eventually make up his team, but there was also something else...

Maybe he wished he would miraculously come across some HUMAN friends as well... he had always been such a total loner... but how could things ever change for someone like him? Ever since he was very young, he had never had any actual friendships with anyone outside of his family. Extremely reserved and quiet, he was always the kid at school who never talked to anyone and who no on else ever talked to. It was a mystery to him why he was this way and he often wondered what was wrong with him to be so anti-social. He just never came across anyone he wanted to open up to. Everyone else always annoyed or seemed boring to him. While he managed to entertain himself on his own during his younger years, this utter seclusion was starting to get to him more than ever since he had left home on his Pokémon journey. After truly being on his own for a while, he felt an overwhelming, crushing sense of emptiness... it was as if he was becoming numb to things, like he just didn't care as much about anything anymore. And this numbness was beginning to SCARE him. It felt like his very essence was being eroded, eaten away by a growing void as his shallow existence became increasingly stale and less substantial. He was fading...

He had even begun to have thoughts of suicide, but asked himself if this would only turn out to be some pathetic attempt to get attention. He hated himself for wanting attention. Why did someone like him deserve it? He knew his own introverted tendencies would never allow anyone to know him, even supposing there WAS someone out there he would actually LIKE to know. There was nothing to do but go on hoping, doubting, hating, and suffocating, as he had for his whole life. It had been this way for SO long, how could he keep going on with nothing to cling to but this void? His depression was the only thing that was real anymore... Absorbed in these dark thoughts, Sean was suddenly snapped out of it by someone approaching and talking to him.

"Hey! You!" the girl loudly exclaimed pointing at him. She wore a faded purple shirt, badly ripped jeans, and had wild dark brown hair that hung down over one eye, completely hiding it. "You're a trainer, aren'tcha? I challenge you to a battle!" Sean just shrugged and sighed. Not another one. Maybe he could get out of this one by lying.

"Sorry, but I'm actually NOT a trainer. Ask someone else," Sean answered in disinterest with a waving hand gesture as he continued walking. But the persistent girl stepped directly in front of him, blocking his way.

"HOLD IT!" She said while jabbing a finger into his chest so hard it surprised him and made him take a small step backwards. "NO one comes out here on this route to Rock Tunnel except for trainers traveling to Lavender. So what the hell are you doing out here if you aren't a trainer? Sean didn't have a response prepared. He sighed more heavily.

"Fine. I AM a trainer" he responded somewhat irritably. But I really don't feel like battling right now, so like I said, go ask someone else..." With one hand he gently brushed her finger away and tried to walk past her, but she sidestepped back in front of him.

"You CAN'T be serious!" she mocked in a tone that was half outraged and half amused. "What's wrong? You some loser who's been creamed one too many times? Or maybe your girlfriend just dumped you?" The mere suggestion of the possibility that he could have a friend, let alone a girlfriend, in the first place made him expel a short, incredulous breath. He was beginning to think that the easiest way to get rid of this person was to just give her the battle she was so anxious for.

"... Okay. I'll battle you," he stated flatly. "But only if you promise to leave me alone afterwards."

"My, my, aren't we touchy?" the girl teased. "Don't you worry. I'll try to make your destruction as quick and painless as possible so you can get back to your pouting. The name's Iris, by the way," she said with a maniacal grin as she took out a Pokéball.

"Sean," Sean stated his name simply, dreading the coming battle.

"Let's make it two on two!" Iris shouted from her position off to the side of the path.

Sean reached into his pocket for a Pokéball. "Whatever."

Iris tossed out her Pokéball. "I'll start with Schizoid!" a flash of white energy revealed the form of a Sandslash bearing its large claws menacingly. While Sean knew that Ganymede would have a type advantage over the Sandslash, he decided he would need to use trickier methods for such a brute.

"Alright, then I guess I'll go with Baphomet," Sean said as white energy flashed once again to reveal a Zubat fluttering its wings rapidly to stay airborne, but hardly making a sound.

Iris scoffed. "A Zubat? Are you kidding me? Heh, no wonder you didn't wanna battle if THAT'S what you had to send out!" Sean didn't respond. He didn't want to spend time exchanging trash talk. He just wanted to get this over with.

"Baphomet, Supersonic!" That was the attack that Sean almost ALWAYS had Baphomet use to begin a battle. He knew that Baphomet had to use clever strategy instead of brute strength to stand a chance in battles—especially against a Sandslash. Before the slower Sandslash could react, Baphomet emitted strange blue waves of high-pitched sound from its mouth towards its opponent. The Sandslash looked around, almost as if it was unsure of where the strange sound was coming from. It was hard to tell if the Supersonic waves had confused it or not.

"Don't let it get to you, Schizoid!" Iris told her Sandslash. "Slash it to pieces!"

"Saaaannnd..." Schizoid moaned in a quiet but threatening tone as it took a low stance and its quills stood on end. "SLAAASH!" It shrieked as it then sprung forward in an explosive leap towards the small bat Pokémon, swiping at it in midair with one of it ivory-colored, razor-sharp claws.

"Zubat!" Baphomet cried in shock as it staggered in the air, falling and briefly scraping against the ground before taking flight again. Several drops of blood flowed from the diagonal slice inflicted on its body.

"Baphomet!" Sean cried in desperation. He knew that that single Slash had almost fainted Baphomet, and that it wouldn't be able to take another hit. This was one of the reasons he disliked battling. He couldn't stand watching his Pokémon, his only friends, suffer. "Quick now, Leech Life!"

The Zubat swooped downwards, gliding gracefully and with uncanny stealth and speed to cling to the tender area between the Sandslash's shoulder and neck. It quickly sank its small fangs into the skin and began draining as much life force as it could from the wound before the Sandslash could shake it off. "Slash!" It whined in alarm.

"Hurry up and Slash it again, Schizoid!" Iris shouted in impatient frustration. Fortunately for Sean, the confusion had finally begun to set in, which bought Baphomet more time than usual to drain blood from its victim. Schizoid slashed the air, too delirious from the confusion to hit the Pokémon clinging to it. It even managed to hurt itself in its confusion, accidentally slashing one of its own thighs in its frantic struggle. But finally, one of the wild swipes made contact with Baphomet, who was thrown harshly to the ground, another bleeding wound on its back.

"Well, it's about time!" Iris sighed in annoyed relief. She then smirked at Sean. "Zubat can be such a pain to deal with, but they really aren't that much of a challenge to beat."

Sean withdrew Baphomet without a word. He regretted ever agreeing to battle. He released his second Pokémon. "Kiichigo, you're my last hope!" A Beedrill hovered in place of Baphomet, its wings making a soft humming noise.

Iris smirked once more as she withdrew her Sandslash. "Oh, goody. You know I COULD have just let Schizoid take care of this one too. It's MORE than capable. However..." She released her second Pokémon.

"Flaaaarrreon!" The Flareon cried with ferocity. Sean now cursed himself for not choosing Ganymede earlier. It was just his luck that she would send out a powerful fire-type.

"I'd much prefer to watch a bug BURN in the wrath of my Flareon, Chilly! Hehehe!" Iris laughed with morbid delight. Sean was beginning to wonder if this girl was a bit touched in the head. In any case, he knew he didn't have a chance now.

Ironic name for a Flareon, he thought to himself as he shoved his hands in his pockets and let out a hopeless sigh. "Well... use Twin Needle, I guess."

Kiichigo moved with even more speed than Baphomet, darting towards the Flareon with the precision and speed of a laser-guided missile. It jabbed its foreleg stingers into the flesh of it's target's side. "Flaaaarre!" Chilly whimpered in response to the throbbing pain. No matter how much damage Beedrill stings actually inflicted, they were always exceedingly painful.

Iris wasn't perturbed. "Let's wrap this up now, Chilly! Incinerate that insect with Ember!"

Chilly began glowing with a faint orange light as heat built up in its body. It then exhaled a storm of small flames which were impossible for even the speedy Beedrill to avoid. Several flames collided with it, flaring up more on contact until the Beedrill plummeted to the ground, its legs and wings crippled in a burnt heap. Both trainers recalled their Pokémon.

"I TOLD you I wouldn't take up too much of your time," Iris beamed at Sean as she approached him.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever..." Sean reached into his pocket for something and offered it out to Iris. "Here're your winnings." He told her with no emotion in his voice.

Iris looked thoughtful and almost taken aback for a moment as she stared at the money he held out to her. Then she regained her sly countenance. "Hmmmm... you better just keep that," she pushed his hand back towards him. "It wouldn't feel right to take money from someone as weak as you. I think YOU'LL need that money more than me!" She giggled gleefully.

"Oh..." Sean found himself blushing slightly, not sure if he should take this as an insult, an act of kindness, or both. "Uhh... thanks." He slid the money back into his pocket, turned around, and continued walking on his way.

"See you around some time, Seanie!" Sean heard Iris yell at him as he walked away. He blushed a little more upon hearing the nickname.

"Not likely," he muttered to himself.

Rain fell steadily outside of the Pokémon Center near the entrance to Rock Tunnel, forming mud puddles in places over the uneven, mountainous earth. Sean sat inside at a table by a window, vacantly staring outside with an elbow braced on the table and his chin resting in his hand. He much preferred the rain to beautiful, sunny weather. When the sun was out and he saw people enjoying its brightness and warmth, it made him feel like there was even more than there already was that he was missing out on in life. Nice weather was one of many things that he just couldn't appreciate anymore. Rainy, gloomy days, in contrast, made him feel more like he was in his element. It was almost as if he and the rain could sympathize with one another and be content in sharing the same melancholic mood.

Arriving at the center shortly after his encounter with Iris, he had immediately given his Pokémon to the nurse to have them healed of their injuries. There were a few other trainers socializing in the large waiting area, but, to Sean's relief, no Iris. Meanwhile, his Pokémon had a brief opportunity to converse with one another while eating a small snack of Pokémon food that the Nurse had provided them after they had been healed.

"I'm just worried to death about him these days!" Baphomet lamented between mouthfuls of food as she gorged herself. She was a Pokémon of excessive affection and an excessive appetite, despite her small size. "I know he's always been moody, but it's NEVER been THIS bad..."

"Worrying about him won't do any good," Kiichigo buzzed in her almost emotionless drone. "I think the best thing we can do is to fight with all our might for him in battle to show him how much we care about him." Ganymede looked concerned as he sat coiled on his small tail.

"I think the problem is how alone he is... I mean, he may have us, but humans are such SOCIAL creatures... they NEED to be loved and embraced by their own kind... even more so than we Pokémon do..." The other two were silent as they reflected on this. Ganymede didn't speak up very often, but when he did, he frequently made profound statements. And for some reason, he seemed to be the most in tune with Sean's feelings.

After passing some time sitting alone at the window waiting for his companions to be healed, Sean finally heard the ding that meant his Pokémon were ready. He was almost disappointed to be broken out of his blank trance, but reluctantly got up and went to the counter.

"Here you are! Your Pokémon are good as new," the nurse said cheerily as she handed him his three Pokéballs. "Might you by any chance be heading through Rock Tunnel?" Sean was a little annoyed by the question. Why should anyone ever ask him about his plans? It wasn't as if anyone CARED about him.

He slowly took his Pokéballs and put them back in his pocket. "Uh... yeah," he answered a little standoffishly.

Her expression became a bit more serious. "Do be careful. There have been some vague reports of ghost type Pokémon in the cave system harassing trainers passing through. In any case, they seem to be driven away by the use of Flash, which everyone uses to light their way through the tunnel. I assume you must have the HM for it?"

Sean wasn't about to tell someone that he was going to try to make his way through Rock Tunnel without Flash. "Yeah, I have it," he assured her with a false smile and an equally false tone of voice. "I have a Voltorb that I taught that move."

The nurse smiled back at him. "Then I'm sure you'll be fine. Have a safe journey!"

With that lie, Sean turned around and walked out the sliding glass door into the rain. It was a short walk winding up around a hill to Rock Tunnel. His clothing and hair nevertheless were half-soaked by the time he got to the mouth of the cave. He enjoyed getting wet in rain ever since he was a child, so he walked slowly on the desolate trail, savoring the feeling of the drops falling in his hair and patting against his shoulders and occasionally on his face. Arriving, Sean paused and stared into the inky black entrance at the foot of the jagged, rocky bluff which stood before him. There was colorful graffiti written at different angles here and there on a few of the now glistening flat rock surfaces around the edges of the opening... random curse words, messages announcing that so-and-so was here, declarations of love... Sean wasn't surprised since so many trainers passed this way.

Ghost Pokémon, huh? He thought to himself. He felt like a ghost himself. Thin, transparent, and hollow inside. He had existed this way, fading away for so long, that all emotions and concerns had become shadows. He WAS nothingness, nothing but a void as cold and lifeless as a deep, barren ocean. He couldn't tell anymore if he needed saving more from death, or from life. Who cares if it's dark and there're ghosts... he thought. Maybe I'll get lost in there and never make it out... I wouldn't mind that... Wouldn't it be fun to see how long I could survive in there? he bitterly mused to himself. I'm too much of a wimp to ever take my own life, anyway... and wandering in pitch black darkness is nothing new to me... maybe I can finally fade away completely...

And with that thought Sean walked into the darkness.

He scraped his shoes deliberately along a rock-strewn floor that he couldn't see, trying his best to feel out the space in front of him. It was a cold, silent place, and he would sometimes shiver as he felt drafts of chilly air that came from various directions, their sources unknown. His eyes were open, but it wouldn't have made a bit of difference if they had been closed. At this point he had no idea how long he had been wandering, and no idea what his surroundings looked like. He had lost all track of time in the total darkness of Rock Tunnel, and the only thing he knew was that he didn't know where he was. Occasionally he would stumble over large rocks or bump painfully into jagged walls, at which point he would run his hand against the rough surface until the wall ended and he had to go by what his feet felt again. The incline of the ground also varied, but he noticed that most of the time he seemed to be hiking upwards. He wondered how many stalactites and stalagmites he had run into and what random directions they had led him in as he felt his way around them. He assumed he was deep within the cave now, and the likely possibility that he would never again see daylight was beginning to sink in. But what did it matter?

He thought to himself how fitting his current situation was, wandering aimlessly in the dark without the ability to see behind him or ahead of him. It was such a perfect environment for one like him. For one who couldn't remember anymore what it had once been like to be happy and who only saw more darkness in his future. Any happiness in his past had become too distant to be real to him, and any hope of happiness in his future was nothing more than a shadow of a lie. It COULDN'T have been any more than a lie, or else it would have manifested itself in SOME form of relief by this point. There was no relief. There never would be. Hope was a lie that only made his torment worse. It was time to let go of hope, and of the hollow shell that his life was... There was only one regret. He wished he could have imparted onto someone the depth of the darkness he had been drowning in. To have been able to show at least one other person that the void inside him was deeper than anyone else could EVER imagine—that his emptiness CRUSHED him with the suffocating weight of all the water in the ocean on the barren bottom of the deepest, darkest, coldest spot in the sea. That the silence in his mind was more stifling than the most remote part of outer space, farthest of all from any stars...

At that moment, he began feeling the ground ahead of him form a suddenly steeper upwards incline that worked against him. He nevertheless continued to walk...

He began pondering how he would die. It seemed most likely that he would just eventually collapse from hunger, thirst, and exhaustion. He couldn't remember the last time he had eaten...

Then, after feeling his way around another corner, he saw it. A few small rays of pale light barely illuminating the faces of a few shadowy rocks ahead of him. He was amazed, but not relieved.

Shoot, he thought to himself. Did I actually make it through? I guess I should have just stayed put in a dark spot back there and not wandered around so much if I really wanted to die... He made his way toward the meager rays of light until he saw their origin: an irregularly-shaped opening that appeared solid white against the blackness of the cave. He stepped outside into less confined-air and a surreal world that felt like a dream.

Above and all around him was whiteness, as if the area was completely enveloped in fog. There was a strip of rocky, moss-covered terrain in front of him, but a short distance to the left and right, the earth seemed to fall away into the fog. There could have been cliffs on either side for all he knew. The land SEEMED to continue further straight ahead of him, but was obscured by the fog. He inspected the opening he had emerged from... no graffiti... and no sign which he knew marked the exit from Rock Tunnel that led to Lavender. He now realized that he hadn't made it through, but had made his way to one of who-knew-how-many remote openings to the vast mountain range above Rock Tunnel... or had he? Maybe he had just become delusional and was imagining all of this... Either way, he was still just as lost as before...

He walked slowly out onto the fairly narrow strip of land, stepping carefully over the strange, green moss and the wet surfaces of the rocks. Then he stopped and stood still... he could feel the cold moisture in the fog around him… it seemed to almost SAP warmth from his body...

The little heat that remained in his body then began to migrate up to his face, and tears began collecting in his eyes. He sank down to sit with his arms closed around his knees, staring into the fog that surrounded him, and the tears began to flow down his cheeks... he didn't know why... maybe it was just the realization of how pathetic he was that made him cry. It usually happened whenever he was in an especially deserted place—a place that was so quiet that it left him with nothing to distract his attention from the void inside him, so that he had no choice but to be confronted face-to-face with the solitude that not only saddened him, but scared him to the point that he couldn't do anything but cry... it was the ONLY time he could feel anything anymore... tears were virtually his last connection to reality...

Then he saw through his tear-distorted vision that the fog was beginning to part and fade a bit in front of him, revealing that the strip of land extended further... he continued watching until he saw another cave opening similar to the one he had exited from gradually materialize out of the whiteness a relatively short distance away from where he sat. He just stared at it for a while, until the flow of his tears began to lessen.

He finally rose to his feet and began walking unsteadily toward the new opening. Might as well go back to the only thing I know, he thought.

When he stepped into the darkness once again, he immediately felt the cold drafts of air again, but this time much stronger than before. He shivered more, but resumed his wandering anyway, leaving the ghostly, fog-filtered light behind him until he was once again in total darkness and could see nothing. Then he felt a strange sensation...

He felt a peaceful weariness overcome his muscles and an over-powering urge to shut his eyelids and rest... he felt like sleeping... he was grateful for this feeling. Maybe he could depart this world in an unconscious, painless state. He almost FELL to his knees, and then drooped over on his side, curling up against cold rock and falling asleep...

But there was something strange about this sleep... Sean felt more CONCIOUS than usual... It was as if his body was asleep, but his mind wasn't. For a while there was nothing but blackness, like the blackness of the caves he had been wandering through... then there was a sudden, violent change.

Without warning, jagged black and white shapes raced vertically and diagonally across his vision... they were so stark, so sharp and unforgiving... and they made him feel not only frightened, but THREATENED, though he wasn't exactly sure why. The chaotic shapes disturbed him greatly—the unpredictable directions they shot at, the relentless speed at which they rushed, and how VIVID they were. It felt like an aggressive assault on his sensitive sensibilities, almost like something was about to attack him, or WAS attacking him...

Then it all stopped just as suddenly as the shapes faded to total whiteness, and he regained just enough consciousness to feel the sensation of someone, or something, lifting his body upwards... Then his perceptions faded and his mind finally fell asleep as well.

...To be continued! And don't worry, this WILL be continued and I WILL reveal what happened/happens to Sean in my next fic, hehe. ^_^


End file.
